Peru's ex-spy chief guilty of disappearing students

LIMA — Former Peruvian spy chief Vladimir Montesinos has been sentenced to 22 years in prison for the forced disappearance of a professor and two students in 1993.

Montesinos is already serving long sentences for crimes against humanity and arms trafficking.

But human rights activists say Monday's ruling by a three-judge panel is significant because it's the first time a Peruvian court has recognized that the government of former President Alberto Fujimori burned the bodies of some victims during its decade-long crackdown on dissent.

The secret facility where the bodies were burned was in the basement of an army barracks from where Montesinos presided over Peru's intelligence agency.